The world is becoming increasingly digital—and that is especially true for marketing. Today, if businesses want to attract customers they need a digital marketing strategy. Social media, blogs, and websites are just a few of the ways that companies are connecting with potential customers online and why professionals with digital marketing skills are in such high demand.
Digital is now so widespread that it can be easy to forget just how much it has revolutionized marketing in a relatively short period of time. Check out a few of the ways that digital marketing has upturned the status quo and changed the way businesses reach customers.
Businesses Can Connect Personally With Customers Like Never Before
Traditional marketing—such as television commercials, billboards, or newspaper advertisements—have the advantage of reaching huge audiences. However, that means a lot of that audience won’t actually be interested in the product or service that is being marketed. Digital marketing allows companies to hone in on their target audience and personalize their marketing like never before. Companies can collect a large amount of data about the people who visit their sites, following their social media pages, or sign up for their email newsletters. With that data, they can segment their target audiences and produce digital content that is most likely to be relevant to them.
For example, businesses can develop a blog that directly addresses the motivations and concerns of their most likely potential customers. That’s why blog management is an important part of digital media courses. Potential customers are more likely to feel engaged with and loyal to brands who make the effort to create personalized marketing content, like informative blog posts. That sort of personalization is impossible with traditional marketing.
Digital Marketing Has Become Extremely Localized
With smartphones, digital marketing has become mobile and local. For example, businesses can choose to create a Google Adwords campaign that targets people who are within a certain radius of their business. That sort of hyperlocalized marketing means that marketing is now far more targeted and businesses are likely to get a higher return on investment on their ad spend.
Furthermore, potential customers can do local searches to find businesses nearby. According to Wordstream, 72% of people who do a local search end up visiting a store within 5 miles. Businesses who show up in local search results therefore are more likely to connect with potential customers who are then very likely to go on to make a purchase.
Digital Marketing Training Is Valuable to Companies of All Sizes
One of the biggest ways that digital marketing has changed business is by levelling the playing field for companies of all sizes. In the past, only large companies could typically afford to employ large marketing departments and create advertisements that would reach a significant audience. Today, even small businesses have sophisticated digital marketing strategies in order to attract customers. While they may not be able to hire entire marketing departments, they can hire freelancers with digital marketing training to help them get noticed online.
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Contact Canadian Business College to learn about our digital marketing program.